Research

Special Collections

Barbara Goldsmith Rare Book Room

The Barbara Goldsmith Rare Book Room was dedicated on June 4, 1996. Its patron, Barbara Goldsmith, is a noted author, an advocate of paper and book preservation, and a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome. The architect, Michael Graves, FAAR'62, RAAR'79, is also a Trustee of the Academy and a book-lover. Their common goal was to create a state-of-the-art rare book room with controlled temperature and humidity, custom shelving, and appropriate housing material and lighting, all designed to enhance the life of the books. Trustee Robert S Pirie contributed support for a conservation survey of all the books destined for the collection, and Barbara Goldsmith has supported the continuation of preservation treatments, an ongoing process.

The rare book collection of the American Academy in Rome not only reflects the strengths of its parent Library but is also, in microcosm, a mirror of the interests and historical development of the Academy as a whole.

In this room are above all printed books of the 16th-18th centuries, although there are also several manuscripts and a selection of illustrated books of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They include early editions of Greek and Latin authors, early treatises on art and architecture, compendia of antiquities, and guidebooks to Rome and other Italian cities. There are also some pop-up books and artist's books. The collection of rare books has been developed during more than a century, through the generosity of many donors, chiefly American. Some of the most notable donors may be identified through bookplates or through provenance records.

The rare book collection can be said to have begun in 1904-5 when Mr. and Mrs. Edward Brandegee of Boston deposited ca. 1,800 books on Rome and the art and artists of Italy at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome then located in Villa Bonghi on Via Vicenza. In 1913 (1911) the American School of Classical Studies merged with the American Academy in Rome, and in 1914, its Library moved to the Janiculum. The handsome new walnut-paneled Library inspired Eleonor de G. Cuyler to endow two alcoves on the subject of ancient art in memory of her brother, Cornelius C. Cuyler; income from the endowment was used not only for current books but also for valuable older works of the eighteenth century and earlier.

The rare books were intershelved with other books on the same subjects until 1964-65 when a cage was constructed for the most valuable volumes, including eighty-four rare books donated by Lewis Einstein. This was considered a temporary measure until a new wood-paneled room could be built, and no provisions were made for climate control. By 1980 the cage area was full of large folios piled on the table originally designated for readers.

The master plan (1991) by Studio Einaudi for the renovation of the McKim, Mead & White building revived the plan for a new Rare Book Room. Through the generosity of Barbara Goldsmith and the architectural vision of Michael Graves, this dream has finally been realized. The Barbara Goldsmith Rare Book Room provides an elegant home for precious volumes, while meeting all current technical standards for their preservation.

The room has been enriched with some works of art: the bust of Barbara Goldsmith by sculptor Lewis Iselin, a Cypro-Archaic amphora (bi-chrome IV ware, 7th c. BCE., from Larnaca, Cyprus), the head of an old man from a grave relief (Augustan, said to be from Rome, of white marble) and a portrait bust of Hermarchus (or Metrodorus?), a Roman copy of a Greek original of c. 270 BCE.

The room is open for two hours each afternoon (Monday-Friday) and provides consultation space for up to six readers at a time; about one hundred people visit the room every year and more than two hundred use the room as readers. The rare book collection includes 2,350 volumes; 143 volumes are from the sixteenth century. Of the ca. 220 guidebooks of Rome, 120 are in a small format, usually 12x19 cm and may thus be considered pocket guides used by pilgrims as they wandered through the streets of Rome, each in search of his or her personal vision of this exceptional city.

Illuminated book of hours, use of Rome, from Bologna. Mss. (R.B.R.146.3.Flo). The Calendar includes, among its major saints' days written in red, the feast of S. Petronius, patron of Bologna. The coat of arms on the opening folio includes the Anjou heraldic charge, which also appears on the arms of the city.

Ff. i + 138 - Limp vellum binding with evidence of two fore edge ties; edges of the book block painted in a simple manner with a floral design. On the back cover, a contemporary (or at least early) note, "derr.o." - Coat of arms in the lower margin of f. 13: or, 2 bezants gules, a bend gules, 1 bezant azur, and in chief azur, 3 fleur de lys or. On the front pastedown, an armorial bookplate, "Ex libris M. A. Principis Burghesii" with the Borghese arms. On f. i, the accession number of the American Academy, "49086" leading to the information that the book was accessioned on 17 August 1942 [tempore belli!] with the note that it was already in the library; it may have been part of the bequest of Herriman in 1920. On the back pastedown in pencil in a modern European hand, "Regist. Carte 137 / V.P.P. / 14 ½ x 10," and in ink in a 15th century hand, "Onurte," twice, as if a pentrial. Contains: ff. 1-12v, calendar with Petronius in red on 4 October; ff. 13-74v, Hours of the Virgin "secundum consuetudinem Romane curie" ending with the changed office at matins for weekly and yearly differences; ff 75-113v, Office of the Dead, use of Rome, beginning and ending defectively; ff. 114-133, Penitential psalms (beginning defectively) and litany, including Petronius as the 8th of 8 bishops and confessors; ff. 133-136, Short Office of the Cross; ff. 136-138v, Short Office of the Holy Spirit.

F. 1 - Unbound. - From the codex made for Leonello d'Este. Brought to Wales as war booty by 1813, already in a damaged state, by the Rolls family, later enobled as Barons Llangattock, of The Hendre, Monmouth (Llangattock sale, London, Christie's, 8 December 1958, lot 190); purchased in 1958 by Goodspeed's of Boston and dismantled by them. This leaf purchased by AAR Trustee, Robert S. Pirie from Goodspeeds and donated by him to the American Academy (a second leaf, purchased at the same time, was a gift of Mr. Pirie to the Abbot of Meteora in Greece). Produced, according to archival records, between 1441 and 1448. See F. Toniolo, "Il lungo viaggio del Breviario di Lionello d'Este tra le due sponde dell'Atlantico," in Medioevo: arte e storia, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Parma, 18-22 settembre 2007, ed. A. C. Quintavalle (Università di Parma e Mondatori Electa, Milan 2008), 564-577, this leaf is not mentioned. Latin. Vers., Loquebantur variis linguis apostoli magnalia dei. Et convenit. Lectio tertia//Beginning of the office for Pentecost, opening with the end of the hymn for first vespers [i.e. Venit creator spiritus], up until the rubric for the third lesson of first nocturns at matins.

The formation of a music program at the American Academy in Rome was suggested as early as 1905 by composer Edward MacDowell, one of the Academy's original trustees, who hoped that "...the Arts of Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, and Music should come into such close contact that each and all should gain from this mutual companionship." MacDowell's proposal was brought to fruition only after the end of the First World War, when musical composition was added to the fields covered by the Arts at the Academy. One of the most vigorous proponents of the new music program at the Academy was Felix Lamond, organist, who became the first Professor of Music in Rome. In 1921, the Academy awarded the first Rome Prize in Musical Composition to Leo Sowerby, who was followed shortly thereafter by Howard Hanson and Randall Thompson. The first Residencies in Musical Composition, awarded to more senior composers, began in 1947 with awards to Samuel Barber and Douglas Stuart Moore.

Two annual Rome Prize Fellowships in Musical Composition are currently offered — the Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize and the Samuel Barber Rome Prize - and an annual residency (the Paul Fromm Composer in Residence). Composers also participate in the Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. In addition, the Rome Prize Fellowships in Ancient Studies and in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies have supported the work of musicologists at the Academy.

The Academy's active concert program has long brought contemporary American classical music to Italian and American listeners. In the 1920s, the work of Academy composers was performed by the Augusteo, Rome's major orchestra, through the good auspices of the composer Ottorino Respighi. In 1934, when Samuel Barber won the Rome Prize in Musical Composition, NBC broadcast the announcement across the United States with a performance of one of Barber's own works. In 1950-51 the Academy began a long and fruitful relationship with the Radio Televisione Italiana Orchestra, locally known as Rome's RAI Orchestra. By the 1960s, RAI began regularly taping and broadcasting American music, and eventually over eighty works were heard by an international audience - over half of these compositions in first performance. The RAI series was also broadcast by WFLN in Philadelphia and over its associated stations throughout the United States in the mid-1980s.

Each composer at the Academy has a personal studio, equipped with a grand piano, as well as access to the Academy's Electronic Music Studio, which houses audio and computer equipment for listening and composing. The Electronic Music Studio also contains records, CDs, and a unique historical collection of tape recordings of Academy concerts from the early 1950s to the present. With the help of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the concert recordings were digitized in 2003 and cataloged in the Library's catalog.

Listen to the following recordings from the Fellows Spring Concert, May 29, 2004, Cryptoporticus.

The Library contains musical scores by Academy composers and by other American musicians, as well as a collection of books on music, including the personal library of Prof. W. Oliver Strunk (1901-1980), author of Source Readings in Music History and an expert on Byzantine music. A list of uncataloged music scores in the Library can be found below.

Helps, Robert.
Fantasy for Violin and Piano (Part I of Serenade commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation), American Composers Alliance. American Composers Edition - Composers Facsimile Edition, New York, 1963.

Lee, Thomas Oboe.
"The Cockscomb" ...text by Barbara Kühn ...music by Thomas Oboe Lee ...a theatre-piece in seven scenes. Commissioned by the Berkshire Music Center and the Fromm Music Foundation. 1981.

-Part for piano and some base instruments, lacks frontispiece with name of composer and title of the work. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig.
-Part for piano and some string instruments; only from page 337 to page 351, which seems to be the last page. Variations for piano, violin?? and violoncello? C. F. Peters.
-Lacks first page - score (orchestra and voices); lacks the first page with the name of composer and title; for orchestra and voices; text in French.

Microfilm and Microfiche

Lists of uncataloged microfilm reels in the Library.

Cicognara Project

Conte Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834) collected a famous library of approximately five thousand books on art, archaeology, and kindred subjects. The books date, in a virtually unbroken sequence, from the beginning of printing to Cicognara's time. It was the largest and most judiciously selected library in the field ever brought together. To this day its possession establishes the Vatican Library as a generously equipped center for studies in the literature and the history of art and classical archaeology as well as of art criticism, taste, and aesthetics. The microfiche collection stems from a joint program of the Vatican Library and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is now becoming available online at http://cicognara.org/

#40 Vat. Gr. 345 First slide states: Biblioteca Apostolica vaticana Vat. Greco 345 Note on film: Psalmo(omega)diai (Psi?) humnoi musichoi ado(omega)menoi (chgeths?) e te(eta)s (tarte(eta)s?) ekkle(eta)sias. *In acknowledgement of the generosity of the Athonite monasteries in permitting the copying of this document, it is requested that copies of any publication developing out of studies of this text be supplied Gratis to the libraries of the monastery where the original manuscript resides. **Microfilmed at Mt. Sinai by the library of congress photoduplication service in cooperation with the American Foundation for the Study of Man and Farouk I University. ***Microfilmed at the Lavra, Mt. Athos for the Library of Congress in cooperation with the international Greek New Testament project.